Bank of America’s push to increase its business client share in 50-some markets across the country has heavily influenced Sharon Miller’s travel plans for the year.

Miller, the lender’s president of business banking, recently visited Austin, Texas, where the bank’s client share is 23% – less than the 30% long-term target the bank has set and has achieved in cities such as Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston. 

Austin is “one area that we’re behind,” she said during a recent interview. “So I’m being intentional about where my business takes me this year.” 

BofA’s business banking segment serves about 3.4 million small and midsize clients who generate up to $50 million in annual revenue. Other markets where the country’s second-largest lender wants to boost its client share: Houston, New York City, Chicago, Oklahoma City and Omaha, Nebraska. 

While in various markets, Miller has dinners with local CEOs and client prospects. BofA’s market presidents connect with local chambers of commerce, or bring Merrill Lynch clients and private bank clients together at forums to cultivate connections, she said.

“We’re spending a great deal of time building those relationships,” Miller said.

There’s no shortage of banks pursuing midsize companies. Competition in the segment is “fierce,” Miller said. Banks “want this space,” because business owners present plenty of opportunity with their personal needs, perhaps wealth, and their employees, she noted. 

In business banking, BofA counts about $200 billion in deposits and $40 billion in loans; the division generates about $8.2 billion in annual revenue and $2.4 billion in net income, according to the bank’s November investor day presentation. The bank has been the top small business lender for more than four years, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.

To drive new client relationships and awareness of what the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank offers in those targeted markets, it’s hiring relationship managers and bankers to add to its roster of 3,000-plus business bankers, although Miller declined to provide a hiring target for the year. 

“There’s different tactics for each market, and we have a plan for each market,” she said.

The bank is also investing in marketing and its digital capabilities; the bank views the latter as a key strength, with digital penetration at about 92% for business clients. BofA spends about $13 billion a year on technology; “most banks couldn’t contemplate that,” Miller said. 

And the lender is intent on fostering connections across the company, having circled areas of opportunity to do more for customers with only one tie to the bank.

About 90% of business banking clients don’t have an investment relationship with Bank of America, whether that’s with Merrill Lynch, Merrill Edge or the private bank, Miller said. 

Likewise, for those financial advisers working with entrepreneurs, “we have a tremendous opportunity to bank those entrepreneurs on the business side, because today they’re at Wells Fargo or Chase, one of our competitors; they’re not here,” she said.

Another area of opportunity BofA is targeting: In its consumer segment, the lender banks 7 million known business owners who have a personal account with the bank but not a business account, Miller said.

Deepening relationships with existing clients, particularly in markets where the bank has already surpassed 30% client share, is part of the effort to grow deposits and loans by 5% to 6% in the medium term, bank executives said at the investor day.

Many businesses in this segment will have two or three lenders they bank with, and Bank of America might be the third provider, serving the client with one product or service, Miller said. “We want to be the first provider,” she said.

OriGen Biomedical, a business client in Austin that had one small-business account with BofA, was looking to buy a new building, “and their primary bank was maybe not stepping up as much as they wanted them to,” Miller said. 

Bank of America was able to finance a new manufacturing facility for the company, illustrating the type of relationship the bank is encouraging. “We stick with them, and when the opportunity presents itself, we are able to help,” she said.

The lender is also pitching its workplace benefits platform to business clients, as an offering that enables employers to better compete for talent. “The big conversation has been around, how do I help my employee?” Miller said.

“We already had this capability within our own four walls here,” she said. The bank’s December announcement that it was rolling out an enhanced workplace benefits offering specifically geared toward small and midsize business owners “was in response to what our clients are asking us for,” Miller said. 

Miller’s team partnered with the bank’s workplace benefits unit to ensure the bank could serve a range of clients. “We have digital capabilities for maybe smaller business owners that don't need something so complicated, all the way up to, we have consultants in the marketplace that go out on calls with our bankers to help set up retirement plans, pooled employer plans, health savings accounts, all the different things that we know employers are looking for,” she said.

Miller said she sees plenty of room to grow in that area, since the vast majority of clients don’t have that offering through the bank. 

“We know there’s a need in the marketplace, and, quite frankly, businesses are thinking more and more about that,” she said.